Building an entire city

This little something got started after my girlfriend dragged me to this design seminar since she studies interior store architecture/design. One of the models there was of this small village surrounded by really chunky walls.

So what does Malika want to do now? That's right, build an entire city! Scale will mostly likely be 1:5000, enabling me to build the entire city and still have it be of convincing size. I was pondering about building a medium sized city, in real life around 100km2 (around 10km x 10km). The model would thus be around 2 by 2 meters.

Model sci fi/fantasy models and maps for cities lack a certain level of "realism". I remember that Dark Heresy included a city map which was supposed to represent a city of around 1 by 1 kilometers, but having a population of 1.5 million. Not very convincing... Especially since real cities with a similar population would be way bigger. a city such as Paris for example has a land area of around 100km2 and an urban area of almost 3000km2 (let's say 60 by 50 kilometers).

Looking at those sort of sizes it might even not be possible to build an entire city and fit it in my house, maybe it'll stick to only a fragment of the city, which would still be rather large.

The model would function as a 3d map of a sorts which could potentially be used for wargame/RPG campaigns, but the current goal is to construct a model of a city which could be used for a scifi setting but still has a high level of realism to make it convincing enough.

As for the feel of the city itself, two main themes (which are probably the result of both my bachelor and master thesis projects) will be dominant, namely:
-Paranoia
-Self sustainability

Paranoia is mainly fear. Pre-modern cities were surrounded by large walls and moats because outsiders were feared. They were also used in order for trading guilds to regulate business, they would decide who enters the city and by what rules business is conducted. In modern cities this fear changed, it was no longer outsiders who were primarily fear, but those living within the city. If we look at the redesign of Paris during the Napoleon era this becomes evident. Revolutionary spaces such as small streets and tenements around the city centers were removed in order to displace and dislocate the revolutionary classes. Another reason for these big streets was that it enabled the army to easier use artillery and other heavy weapons against a violent mob. Wide streets also enable easy movement of troops. Big streets for military purposes also become evident when looking at the German [i]autobahn[/i] which were designed in order to transport tanks across Nazi Germany more efficiently.
Large squares and other public spaces in which people of different classes, ideologies, genders, ages, etc could meet have also been tightly managed in the last couple of decades in order to make these areas "more attractive" to the business community. In this city these areas would be no different, perhaps they would include giant screens which would display propaganda constantly.
Another concept used to provide security against internal threats is by building fortified city blocks. You could compare them to gated communities but on a much smaller scale. Imagine a city block turned inward, you could only enter the block through a single entry way. Whilst this provides some sort of safety for the inhabitants, they could also easily be isolated when needed to. Quarantine could easily be maintained that way, especially if these blocks are not self sufficient for food production.

This leads me to my second point, namely self sufficiency. Whilst it would not be possible for the city to become a 100% self sufficient area, it could move towards it. Phil's Ecorium concept kind of sees a return here, or at least the sources from which he drew inspiration. Urban farming like in Cuba (using free spaces to produce crops) and vertical farming would be very common. I can imagine districts within the city which could be deemed fully rural, or at least food producing. There are cases of cities in the UK which are fully self sufficient when it comes to food production. Havana also has become self sufficient if I'm not mistaken.

Self sufficiency is also sort of the result of paranoia, there might be this permanent fear that the city might be under siege. If that does happen it would be disastrous if the city was fully dependent on outside sources for food.

So how will paranoia and self sufficiency be represented in my project?
-Large city walls: keep outsiders out.
-Districts surrounded by walls: ability to isolate them when needed.
-Urban and vertical farming: produce enough food to supply the city.
-Food production in protected zones: habitation districts not able to produce their own food, thus enabling government to control people by controlling food distribution lines.
-Wide streets: prevent blocking, easy movement military

Materials planning on using:
-board (type of cardboard also used for architectural models)
-foam
-whatever I can get my hands on

The aesthetic feel I imagine for the city, which might not be visible in 1:5000 scale is kind of similar to Communist Gothic, but also Imperial cities in 40k but with a more Eastern European feel, perhaps more akin to City 17 in Half Life 2.

Expect pics/sketches/etc in the coming days/weeks! :)

Tips, comments, advice, etc more than welcome!

Some early sketch-up pics to give you an idea for the feel I'm going for!

That might be an idea. At the moment this project will kind of be my own little way of making a 3d city map, details will be pretty minimal for the time being.

I would love to make better sections of cities later on (once I've mastered Sketch-Up some more) which could be used for settings in the Troll Forged Miniatures universe but also for Anargo.

I'd love to see an Imperial city which kind of makes sense (as in that it could actually work out) but at the same time be totally paranoid. Infrastructural violence (concept by Dennis Rodgers) and architectural violence (a concept I'm working on) would be key here. 40k cities are just "yeah, they are so big and on the top life is nice with wealthy people and on the bottom it sucks". Whilst this 'cliche' in itself isn't so bad, it is a rather boring one and wouldn't be that logical.

A very interesting project Malika. I have considered doing something similar myself, though in BFG scale(more like 1:30,000), making it plausible to construct an entire hive, or at least the central parts of one, and keep the size reasonable, I was thinking ~10-15cm tall and ~30cm across at the base, corresponding to a peak height of 3-5km and a diameter of ~10km.

I certainly agree with you about the realism aspect, I had a look at Dark Heresy and you are quite right, that would be Port Suffering, population 2.5million, diameter ~1km. While walled cities tend to have higher densities than non-walled ones, since the population grows after the walls are built and it is much cheaper to increase the density than extend the walls, that corresponds to a mean density over 10 times higher than the most densely populated areas in world today and those lie in the centre of large metropolises, whereas this is as far as I can tell, in the middle of nowhere. Added to that it also claims to contain a starport inside the city walls, in my mind a starport of any appreciable size is going to occupy a vast area, similar to a modern major airport (e.g. 12 sq. km for London Heathrow), while here it appears to occupy the town square! A hive city would I'm sure be able to reach those densities, and probably considerably higher, owing to their large vertical extent, but for an isolated settlement it just isn't reasonable.

Anyway, rant over I really like your ideas. In terms of your preliminary sketchup layouts I would suggest that you make the segments more contiguous with each other to be a more plausible representation of a city that started off contained within a single wall. That is originally a single walled segment was built, population and densities increased but there is a limit so people start moving outside the walls where space is more plentiful/cheaper at the expense of reduced safety. Eventually the size of these 'suburbs' makes building new wall segments around some of them reasonable so you end up with an amorphous segmented city with all of the individual segments running up against each other. Some districts outside the walls that have yet to be incorporated into the city proper might be good too.

__________________

Junior techpriest: This new machine still isn't working
Senior techpriest: Have you tried adding more skulls and applying more holy oils?

The idea is that the blocks function as separate cells. Perhaps the whole city started with a single one of them or a few of them spread across a relatively large distance. Later on others were built as well and connected to the other ones. The idea is that the blocks are separated by water (I used green to show the level of contamination). So maybe the settlements are built on a large lake or sea.

I do like the idea of people living outside the settlement blocks, but those would be very akin to shantytowns, poor and miserable areas which are isolated from the blocks (how very infrastructurally violent!).

The idea is that the blocks function as separate cells. Perhaps the whole city started with a single one of them or a few of them spread across a relatively large distance. Later on others were built as well and connected to the other ones.

Fair enough, that would also work. If they are built in a large lake or sea it would also make more sense for the city proper to expand by complete cells at a time, and for them to be slightly more spread out. It would also raise the possibility of old, abandoned parts of the lower levels of some of the cells that have filled with water.

When I was writing about people living outside the city segments I was thinking very much of shantytowns myself. Indeed many cities in industrialising countries like Brazil and India are quite similar with the city proper that has facilities like piped water and an electrical grid surrounded by poorer temporary settlements, which are continually bulldozed to make way for an expansion of the city proper.

Oh, I haven't thought about the lower levels yet, I wanted to do something with a subway net in the lower levels, but the running under water idea is also great! I don't think the entire city would be built on the water, but I imagine that the surface of the planet is that hostile that most cities have been forced to be built high and fortified to keep nature, or whatever it is that runs there, at bay. I can imagine shantydowns being built up against the walls or between protected blocks.

As for cities in Brazil. I myself did extensive research on city life in Lima, Peru, and more specifically themes such as segregation, fear of crime and class/racial relationships. What you saw in Lima was that a certain point people were squatting spots of land, at some point the Peruvian capital grew around 100km2 every two months! (that's a small city being added to it every two months!) These were mostly shantytowns without any resources, no electricity, no water, no sewers, houses made from clay and grass. But a few years later people make a little bit of money and improve their houses, later on sewers are places, electricity is introduced, etc. Nowadays there are parts of Lima which have gigantic malls and mega cinemas while 40 years or so ago they were just mud huts populated by rural migrants.

As for the being bulldozed away part. I can imagine those shantytowns near or against the fortified blocks are built in such a way that it wouldn't be that beneficial to bulldoze them away, so the small gap areas where new city blocks wouldn't fit in and that sort of thing.

EDIT:

Some pics!

(the tiny spot next to the building right next to the block's wall is a human being. Imagine the size of those buildings then! :)

That is certainly quite an impressive growth rate!You are probably at least partially right about the bulldozing, I'm sure that people would get to know the sorts of places where shantytown developments would not be bulldozed, if nothing else because the ones that do not get bulldozed would get left when the others are!I can almost picture that being skirted in shantytowns might actually be beneficial for the city segments if they are built in a body of water since the shantytowns would act as a kind of sea defence or storm barrier, in the event of bad sea conditions the shantytowns would bear the brunt without the walls of the segments taking much of the force, and thus not having to worry as much about erosion. Of course the shantytowns would probably tend to be largest in the lee of the segments where the conditions are better but that does not entire negate the idea.

One thing that springs to mind with regards to the construction logic is the ultimate "tech level" at which the city is aimed at (sorry if I missed it). You've mentioned bulldozers, but does that mean also cranes, anti-grav platforms, or whatever. All would have an impact on construction methods and techniques...

I would need to read more about the Tech Levels. I'm not totally sure yet if I want the city to be an Imperial (as in 40k one), however, I think it could easily be adapted as such, just need to add some Imperial Eagles and skulls here and there!

You can see some of the new building designs I've been toying with as the adding of details to structures such as the bridge.

One of the entry ways to the landing pad. I thought it cool and fitting to have the landing pad located on a higher level. Each of the pads has a diameter of 250m, which means it could contains many smaller craft such as shuttles and fighters or several larger landers.

Slowly learning to add more details to the buildings. The city blocks will be surrounded by tons of small docks which are used to transport larger goods and people (perhaps gondola styled tourism?)

Another (and earlier) version of some docks. It's a pretty simple and straightforward design, but I like it!

(And yes, for both dock pictures, those tiny little dots are human beings!)

Sort of pseudo panorama shot of one of the bridges connecting the many city blocks. The shot looked cool and kind of reminded me of some of the concept art for David Lynch' Dune film adaptation.

EDIT:

Been adding traintracks. Most of the trains will go through an "underground" (underneath the elevated components of the city blocks) route, enabling fast transportation of good and passengers throughout the entire city.

Working on new designs for some of the other districts. The landing pads zone was already a test for elevated blocks, but these are taking it to the next level. The two squared blocks are connected by a large bridge. Entry through the blocks will only be available through naval ship I think, not sure yet.

Working on more docks, figuring out the copy/paste function a bit better, but it's still not as easy as I imagined, selecting specific components and rotating them into the right configuration is still a bit difficult. None of the docks have cranes yet, but they might come once I get better at using the program! :D

This was originally the second dock I made. The original design was just a small elevated platform and two holes in the wall, now I've added four storage buildings, a silo, added more accents to the walls and created an arched wall between the two halves of the platform.

Smaller landing pads added for specific access to the big building in the center of the block. Note the people of the bridge crossing the building and landing pads.

I'm thinking of taking the paranoid/need for protection feel to the next level. The idea of having to draw millions of tiny windows on each of these huge buildings kind of bugged me. Furthermore, due to their size most people living in the buildings (who don't live near the edges of the buildings) wouldn't have windows/access to day light. I'm toying with the idea that none of the buildings will have windows at all. The outer walls are around 5m thick, basically becoming mighty bunkers of their own, able to withstand most types of conventional bombardments. You might wonder how these people would then get light. Who wants to live in total darkness? Conventional artificial light (famous yellow lights) isn't the way to go, whilst it adds to the whole grimdark feel of 40k, it simply wouldn't work. Suicide rates would be enormous. I imagine all the apartments inside the buildings have their inner walls covered with large screens which provide the illusion of windows. I guess that the supplier of those buildings (who is either the state itself or controlled by the state) would provide the feed for those screens. I imagine most screens would then demonstrate a beautiful outside world, or at least the normal outside world. In certain moments, lets say a war or conflict, a state of emergency could be declared; people are forced to stay indoors, the screens only projecting nice things rather than the conflict going on outside.

I've been trying to think of reasons why they might build on the water rather than on land. I know that you have stated that this city building project isn't perse for an Imperial city in the 40k universe. IYou could however use one of the trope of the 40k universe to give a credible reason to build on the water rather than land. What if the planet was a death world? It could be toxic flora, dangerous fauna or a combination of the two. The safest place to build may be on the water. This could also be an explanation as to why there are no external windows. If it is toxic flora, depending on the wind conditions, the spores of these plant might be blown into the city.

As to light issues, You may wish to consider making the cylindrical structures domed. I like your idea of large vid screans projecting virtual environments, but you could also mak it so that some natural light enters through large domed structures, to perhaps provide light to a park at the base of the structure. the large cylindar blocks become artifical city shafts. Such a structure might be similar to a caravansary along the old silk road or the fortified houses of Spain. These would have thick outer walls with small windows. The structures were usuall square or rectangular, with a large inner courtyard. the rooms would be situated to have windows opening out into this courtyard, for light and for ventilation. They might end up looking something like these repurposed Gasometers (http://www.anargo.net/comment/nojs/reply/30/104) in Vienna Austria.

Now as for inspiration of cities build on bodies of water, you could go with something like the original design of Tenōchtitlānbuilt on Lake Texcoco....now part of modern day Mexico City. In essence, what it looks like you are attempting to create are artificial chinampas, to support your city blocks. As for shanty towns surrounding or near your walled city blocks, you may want to take a look at Stiltsville, a small community of structures built on wood and concrete pilings, off the coast of Miami. Granted, a true shanty town might be groupped closer together, maybe with a bunch of boats tied together and with large house boats, like you'd find in Aberdeen Harbor (Hong Kong), but it gives an idea of what stilt houses in such a shanty town might look like.

I've been trying to think of reasons why they might build on the water rather than on land. I know that you have stated that this city building project isn't perse for an Imperial city in the 40k universe. IYou could however use one of the trope of the 40k universe to give a credible reason to build on the water rather than land. What if the planet was a death world? It could be toxic flora, dangerous fauna or a combination of the two. The safest place to build may be on the water. This could also be an explanation as to why there are no external windows. If it is toxic flora, depending on the wind conditions, the spores of these plant might be blown into the city.

That might be an idea. Another idea might be that this world originally was covered by more land, but for some reason the sea levels rose to such an extent that only the higher locations survived, the other ones were drowned by the oceans. Or perhaps something on a less extreme scale since I might want to locate certain parts of the city or surrounding on land. So maybe the city started on relatively small patches of land but then moved onto the waters, first it were only a few platforms, but later on most of the city was located on the water. After that, this model of city building might have been more common and taken to another level, as in building entire cities on water.

As for the lack of windows, I will stick to my idea of fear. Spores could be present, but it would then also be possible to build air tight windows, meaning no extra air will come through. This would however mean that people outside would need to wear some sort of protection.

As to light issues, You may wish to consider making the cylindrical structures domed.

Most of the cylindrical stuctures I have now are silos. There are two exceptions, but those are landing pads for shuttles.

I like your idea of large vid screans projecting virtual environments, but you could also mak it so that some natural light enters through large domed structures, to perhaps provide light to a park at the base of the structure. the large cylindar blocks become artifical city shafts. Such a structure might be similar to a caravansary along the old silk road or the fortified houses of Spain. These would have thick outer walls with small windows. The structures were usuall square or rectangular, with a large inner courtyard. the rooms would be situated to have windows opening out into this courtyard, for light and for ventilation. They might end up looking something like these repurposed Gasometers (http://www.anargo.net/comment/nojs/reply/30/104) in Vienna Austria.

I dig this idea, it's something I might experiment with once I'm better at using Sketch Up. I can imagine buildings like that for the elites, sort of a hybrid between a palace and gated community of a sorts. However, in the longer run I also plan on making components which are located outside the city. I think that the elites would also have houses outside of the city, the ideas you mention for the buildings would be perfect for that! :D

Now as for inspiration of cities build on bodies of water, you could go with something like the original design of Tenōchtitlānbuilt on Lake Texcoco....now part of modern day Mexico City. In essence, what it looks like you are attempting to create are artificial chinampas, to support your city blocks. As for shanty towns surrounding or near your walled city blocks, you may want to take a look at Stiltsville, a small community of structures built on wood and concrete pilings, off the coast of Miami. Granted, a true shanty town might be groupped closer together, maybe with a bunch of boats tied together and with large house boats, like you'd find in Aberdeen Harbor (Hong Kong), but it gives an idea of what stilt houses in such a shanty town might look like.

This I dig even more! It is something I will definitely look into at a later time, experiment with buildings on pillings. Perhaps they could become so big that they start to block up waterways, which means the government would be forced to remove them. Might provide interesting storylines for RPGs

You might want to look to fixing some of those picture links, Malika, since most of the text is directly linked to the image and so its difficult to figure out what you're talking about when reviewing the thread.

Some good ideas going on at the moment and once again reminds me and inspires me to keep on polishing my 3d modelling skills in Max/Maya.

This 54 story residential tower, is in Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg, South Africa. After the end of apartheid, the building was taken over by gangs who kept the owners out at gunpoint. It became a haven for drug dealers and squaters. The central core was used as a rubbish dump. At its worst, rubbish was piled five stories high. There was even a proposal to turn the structure into a highrise prison.

After our discussion over at VFTE, Destecado, that's actually one of the structures that I've adopted for my "underground living" in the Shadowrun Apocalypse setting along with the alternate "hexagonally-arranged stacked" cylinders for horizonal living spaces off a central or core thoroughfare. Well, that and the Aquiarius concept from the First Millennial Foundation.

@Kage: I moved the pictures of the city to another photo-album, hence that the links are broken now. The old pictures can still be viewed here.

@Destecado: I'm digging the residential towers. I will definitely try to include some of those in there. I might still make them the buildings originally meant for the elites, them being one of the few who are allowed access to natural light inside their houses rather than the screens that the normal people only have, which are very much akin to the telescreens from Nineteen Eighty Four. The South African case sounds interesting, and very fitting of how such a building can go to waste/rot away. I can imagine abandoned buildings like that in the countryside.

@Kage (again): Vertical farming you say? Did you ever check the documentary [i]Future of Food[/i]? Note that apparently there are two of them, one American one which specifically deals with genetically modified foods and one by the BBC that looks into the potential food shortages in the UK and how to solve them. You need to see the one by the BBC, presented/created by George Alagiah. There are some very interesting concepts mentioned in there, including vertical farming but also aquaponics. Aquaponics are basically fishtanks with small pots/etc floating on top which contain the crops. The excrements of the fish are used to feed the plants, while a very small percentage of the plants are used to feed the fish. The fish will grow, as will the plants, meaning that once ready both can be eaten.

I'm becoming more and more tempted to also have this city set in the 40k universe/Anargo Sector. I might have to do a rewrite of one of my older worlds...

Just so you know, I took the liberty of deleting all the "not here" images for the various images that you had posted and subsequently moved.

@Kage: I moved the pictures of the city to another photo-album, hence that the links are broken now. The old pictures can still be viewed here.

Thanks. And once again I apologise about these "broken" forums. I'm slowly getting everything fixed, but I think that I need to break myself of the requirement that the forums look like a pretty phpBB, SMF or whatever forum. This is just the kind of project that while at the moment only peripherally related to the 40k universe (and the project) I really would love to see more of and support as much as I can.

In my mind, and increasingly so, the fans of the 40k universe are the only ones that are truly producing substantial and visionary works for the 40k universe. And without hissy fits from the authors. ;)

@Destecado: I'm digging the residential towers. I will definitely try to include some of those in there. I might still make them the buildings originally meant for the elites, them being one of the few who are allowed access to natural light inside their houses rather than the screens that the normal people only have, which are very much akin to the telescreens from Nineteen Eighty Four.

Heh, there's an irony there.

@Kage (again): Vertical farming you say? Did you ever check the documentary [i]Future of Food[/i]?

I didn't, but I'll try and find it online, so thanks for the reference.

I'm becoming more and more tempted to also have this city set in the 40k universe/Anargo Sector. I might have to do a rewrite of one of my older worlds...0

I would welcome that. Such exploration is at the heart of the re-visioned project. Well, assuming that Dragon Lord and Destecado ever post again! (I'm joking... ;))

Just so you know, I took the liberty of deleting all the "not here" images for the various images that you had posted and subsequently moved.

Thanks a lot! It makes the thread less chaotic.

Thanks. And once again I apologise about these "broken" forums. I'm slowly getting everything fixed, but I think that I need to break myself of the requirement that the forums look like a pretty phpBB, SMF or whatever forum. This is just the kind of project that while at the moment only peripherally related to the 40k universe (and the project) I really would love to see more of and support as much as I can.

Thanks dude. Don't worry about the "broken" forums. I still need to get a bit used to the controls. The whole thing with the pictures had to do with photobucket and not with the forums anyways. :)

In my mind, and increasingly so, the fans of the 40k universe are the only ones that are truly producing substantial and visionary works for the 40k universe. And without hissy fits from the authors. ;)

I don't know about that, I'm really digging that Aaron D Bowski guy a lot, [i]Soul Hunter[/i] still has me all intrigued. It's a nice change from the typical "and then he grabbed his chainsword [20 page fighting scene] and defeated the one of a kind monster bla bla" we get to endure. In case you haven't noticed, I really couldn't care less about fight scenes. Yes books about wars are interesting, but I have no interesting in each move carried out in a fight...

Heh, there's an irony there.

Of course! It might then also fit well with the Imperium's sometimes perceived ignorance. The masses have never been the true enemy of an oppresive state (unlike a democracy), the true enemy has always been the intellectual elite. The educated ones are the threat for they are the ones who "truly" perceive and define the oppression/trauma/etc. It would have been more fitting if the elites were to live fully indoctrinated with the masses more or less "free" to live their lives.

I didn't, but I'll try and find it online, so thanks for the reference.

IIRC the BBC used to stream it on their site somewhere, don't know if they still do.

I would welcome that. Such exploration is at the heart of the re-visioned project. Well, assuming that Dragon Lord and Destecado ever post again! (I'm joking... ;))

It will probably be placed in the revisioned Sicita (note the new spelling, less potential confusion with double c's or t's). It has always been a mining world, but more lively and fertile. The Merchant Wars brought conflict to the planet. Chemical/biological warfare caused most of the planet to become infertile, turning it into a desert or at least a world too hostile for normal life. The population built their fortified cities, food production becomes more industrialized and the planet attempts to become self sufficient in order to prevent starvation. I don't know yet if this would be the result of warfare or more subterfuge sabotage, for example by introducing certain types of crops or lifestock that totally messed up the planet's ecosystem... Sounds more interesting to me than the usual bombardment...

You're welcome. You should also have the ability to edit your own threads. Let me know if this is not the case.

Thanks dude. Don't worry about the "broken" forums. I still need to get a bit used to the controls. The whole thing with the pictures had to do with photobucket and not with the forums anyways. :)

Yeah, I know, but I'm most annoyed that the software isn't quite working as it has done in the past. At the moment I'm trying to get the WYSIWYG editor to play nice with IMCE so that people can upload images to the site. As one might imagine this is going to be vital for producing articles, and having people able to put up their articles and worlds was one of the reasons that we moved towards Drupal in the first place.

The pretty forums are just an added bonus... If I can get them working. I'm increasingly of the opinion, though, that I would prefer a functioning site than pretty SMF/phpBB/whatever-styled forums. I know that this was a concern in the past, but it's not something that I'm overtly concerned with.

I don't know about that, I'm really digging that Aaron D Bowski guy a lot, [i]Soul Hunter[/i] still has me all intrigued. It's a nice change from the typical "and then he grabbed his chainsword [20 page fighting scene] and defeated the one of a kind monster bla bla" we get to endure.

Soul Hunter has definitely moved up into one of my favourite books produced by the Black Library. I even managed to take a look at the newest Codex Dark Eldar and was surprised to find it quite intriguing... So maybe GW are coming through a lull of the past 10 years.

And on a software note, I'll try and install the BBCode module, assuming of course that I don't make an arse of that as well. ;)

In case you haven't noticed, I really couldn't care less about fight scenes. Yes books about wars are interesting, but I have no interesting in each move carried out in a fight...

I hear you, man. When reading many of the novels I find myself skim reading or even just flicking past the combat scenes. They're all so.. repetitive. It's the problem that I've also found with the official 40k RPG materials, but there we go.

the true enemy has always been the intellectual elite. The educated ones are the threat for they are the ones who "truly" perceive and define the oppression/trauma/etc.

I forget the name of the dictator that decided anyone with glasses was one of the "intellectual elite," thus a threat to their power and thus also a target for his security personnel.

IIRC the BBC used to stream it on their site somewhere, don't know if they still do.

I've had problems streaming materials from the BBC because I'm on the other side of the pond.

Sounds more interesting to me than the usual bombardment...

Indeed. Post the information to the appropriate forum. We're being a bit slow at the moment, but hopefully that won't last.

Also, if you have any ideas about the project in general, just let me know.

Apologies for not being around so much for a bit, I have been a bit swamped attempting to get a paper ready for submission, still not done but it's getting there slowly.

The new additions to the city are looking very good Malika and the developing concepts for the city(ies) are intriguing too. I'll comment on some of the more specific ones in the Sicita thread, a few more general ones here though.If you're going with the no-windows with viewscreens that also project propaganda instead are you still keeping the shantytowns concept? Just a thought I'm not sure how well it fits to have people out in the open and 'free' down in the shantytowns if most of the population are so heavily controlled within the city. I suppose in this situation the general population of the city would know very little about the shantytowns, which would almost certainly be portrayed as terrible dens of disease, disorder and savages by the government, but how would the people in the shantytowns feel, would they want to be a part of the city or would they rather keep their independence?If you did want to put windows on the buildings could you not use a texture that looks like windows? Or indeed at that scale you might not be able to see the windows, or the buildings could be all glass like many office blocks. Not against the brutalist/controlling concepts just a possible technical alternative if you did want windows.

If you're going with the no-windows with viewscreens that also project propaganda instead are you still keeping the shantytowns concept?

I am keeping the shantytown idea, no worries about that.

Just a thought I'm not sure how well it fits to have people out in the open and 'free' down in the shantytowns if most of the population are so heavily controlled within the city.

The shantytowns are likely to be inhabited by a form of underclass which is not part of the actual population, or are at least not considered to be actual citizens...

I suppose in this situation the general population of the city would know very little about the shantytowns, which would almost certainly be portrayed as terrible dens of disease, disorder and savages by the government, but how would the people in the shantytowns feel, would they want to be a part of the city or would they rather keep their independence?

I guess the people in the shantytowns might want to become normal citizens, but this of course is practically impossible. Most of those living in the shantytowns will never leave them. There are of course exceptions, I can imagine that the PDF and other high risk jobs such as dangerous mining would provide a possibility for some to move out of the shantytowns.

If you did want to put windows on the buildings could you not use a texture that looks like windows? Or indeed at that scale you might not be able to see the windows, or the buildings could be all glass like many office blocks. Not against the brutalist/controlling concepts just a possible technical alternative if you did want windows.

The idea is also that each building is practically a bunker on its own. However, I can imagine windows here and there, maybe some observatory like complexes in the cities.

EDIT:

Updates!!!

Sort of an overall view of the madness so far...

One of the new docks:
Great thing with the docks is that they enable me to experiment a lot without risking to mess up the entire city...

Stadium:
Bread and games was a motto once used by the Romans. I guess that in any other totalitarian regime they might want to try to a similar approach, look at the Olympics for Nazi Germany, or the upcoming Football (I refuse to call it soccer) World Cup in Russia. The area is huge, a diameter of 400 meters, major sports and combat events could take place. Thousands upon thousands of people could view them inside the arena. The screens inside the habitation units could also transmit the broadcasts from what's going on in the arena...

More skyscrapers
Plan is to have every block have a sort of "central building" which is an unique gigantic skyscraper.

Giant pillars:
Slowly figuring this aspect out...

Another landing platform:

More skyscrapers and factories:

View taken from a random building in the city:

More landing pads:
I imagine that most passengers would land at the shuttle port, but more urgent business (which is normally conducted in the skyscrapers, the elites' centers) might require better access. The skyscrapers tend to have their own landing pads, enabling specialized transports to land.

At first I simply used this type of scale because I was too lazy to switch to a smaller one and realised it would take me for ever and ever ever to build a city. As I started to figure out the program more and add more details here and there I realised this would no longer have to be the case. The super large scale now becomes yet another symbol of oppression. Streets are that wide that they can't be blocked by potential protestors, the really large streets (the ones wider than 20m, so mostly the bridges connecting the blocks) are that wide that they also function as some sort of natural border between zones within the district blocks, preventing people from simply crossing over. The gran scale of the buildings is rather impression and very imposing, a bit of "rule of cool", but also to remind people how small and insignificant they actually are.

Update!

This is going to be one of the mega structures in the city. The tower stands about 700 meters tall!

The first block I started with is more or less finished, as in that all the buildings are in there. More details and stuff will of course be added later on.

The second block is starting to fill up.

Added a smaller fortress structure between the cities. In a 40k setting this might be an Adeptus Arbites outpost, in any other setting this might be a security forces command center.

This is what the entire city currently looks like. As you can see a second side is slowly being built. I might want to experiment with adding land areas to the city as well, so that it won't be that the entire city is built on water.

One of the new bridges, I'll add a human for scale later, it's rather huge, spanning over a kilometer long!

Another bridge spanning the river, also over a kilometer long. I was kind of influenced by that large freeway/bridge thing you see in movies/videos/shows about Miami.

A new tower, the round platforms on the top are landing bays for smaller shuttles. The stands at exactly 800 meters tall!

I'm currently working on a new and improved version of my original concept city. I will add no "details" (such as different colorings and fancy renderings, or arches, etc) to the buildings. This will enable me to construct a larger city without my computer crashing, but also enable to simply give you a better 3d map of the city which focus on the city itself rather than small technicalities.

That sounds like a sensible idea to me, the vast majority of the detail would probably be wasted anyway as most of the time you would just want to produce panoramic views of the whole city. If you did want to do some close up images of important locations it might be better to produce the close up views completely separately.

Some of the important areas could then indeed get a separate file, more details in the buildings and what not as to turn the building into a map itself.

I've been updating the city a bit, as you may or may not notice. As always I'm unsure whether this should be a 40k city or something for a different setting. I would always use them for both since they won't have too many details indicating the setting. Once it it finished I'd love to do some renders on it, the industrial areas would colorwise be very akin to the stuff CELS did so long ago, as you can see here.

It's certainly progressing apace. I think I prefer the irregular layout you are using for the retaining walls on this one to the hexagonal pattern of the previous one as well, it makes it seem more like a real city that has grown piecemeal over time, and ended up a bit like a cross between Manhattan and Venice. I must ask what the circular towers connected to the main city by those big thick pipes are though?

I was pondering that these towers might be factories/industrial buildings. But I imagine that the chimneys are way too big. If it is industry, these would be the only thing people get to see since most of it would be taking place underground.

Another idea I was toying with was that these are living spaces of a sorts. The structures would be surrounded by huge shanty town like areas. The towers might originally have had another function, but later on became hubs for migrants to move to. Since the main city wouldn't want its poor living in it (only working there), it keeps the poor at a distance not only by walling the city itself, but also by creating distance between the main city and poor zones, which have surrounded these towers.

Maybe the towers are indeed industry, but not in the giant chimney sort of way. Need to figure that out, but I guess that would go once I would make a more detailed "map" of one of the towers.

Fair enough, it depends how big the towers are I suppose what it is most reasonable for them to be. Depending what sort of technology level you are going with for this city there are all sorts of alternative possibilities as well, from massive shield generators to weather control systems that function in a similar way to the 'chimneys' of a termite mound.

Half Life 2 was definitely an influence on this project! I would love to make a close up of one of those towers surrounding the city, but I don't know yet what to do with it. Might start with some new projects in the meantime...

Some of you might remember Philip Sibbering's Ecoria. I remember it caused quite some discussions on the first Anargo forums.

I decided to create a single hab unit using google sketchup, it's still a WIP. The living, storage, working and processing spaces (the 3 blocks in the front and the middle one of the second row) still need a lot of work and rethinking. The rackfarms are as good as done.

The feel of life inside the Ecorium, at least in this one, to me is similar to that amphibian game system factory in eXistenZ or life in that city in Avalon. People live their lives, life seems to pass them. They work, but then spend most of the time plugged into alternate/virtual reality just to avoid the mundane boringness or every day life.

The first image looks like a line drawing version of your earlier hexagon-based city unless I am mistaken. The second one is rather more of a 'conventional city' in general appearance, for some reason it reminds me rather strongly of Sao Paolo.